December 2019 — June 2020: First All-sky survey with the ART-XC: see Interactive Map
ART-XC — «Astronomical Roentgen Telescope – X-ray Concentrator» is a grazing-incidence X-ray telescope produced by a collaboration of IKI RAS and Russian Federal Nuclear Center with participation of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
PI of the project is Mikhail Pavlinskiy, IKI RAS.
ART-XC complement eROSITA, providing additional sensitivity at higher X-rays, from 5 to 30 keV.
ART-XC scientific goals
- To perform first ever sensitive all-sky survey in 5-11 keV band, detecting thousands of obscured AGNs and unveiling absorbed Galactic sources, such as high-mass X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables.
- Conduct several wide-field surveys of the most interesting regions of X-ray sky such as Galactic Center, Norma Arm, Small Magellanic Cloud e.t.c. Also ART-XC will perform deep surveys of Ecliptic Poles. In this dedicated fields ART-XC will provide coverage in a full 5-30 keV range.
- Search for transient X-ray sources, using unique “concentrator” approach, that extends telescopes field of view for bright sources.
Telescope parameters
Telescope consist of 7 identical co-aligned mirror modules, each nesting 28 mirror shells. Shells were fabricated at the Marshall Space Flight Center and made from nickel-cobalt alloy with iridium coating. The telescope modules have a large field of view (0.3 square degree, 36′ diameter), good angular resolution (HPD~ 30″ on-axis at 8 keV) and wide energy range from 5 to 30 keV.
The detectors were designed and manufactured at IKI RAS. They are a semiconductor CdTe double-sided strip detectors which provide both good energy resolution (about 10% above 10 keV) and timing capabilities.
